JPH06243060A - Electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a system having a function for leaving the message of a message board and a function for transmitting the message to a prescribed place. CONSTITUTION:A terminal is provided with a storage medium 150 accumulating plural documents and the display devices 170 and 171 of the documents by using the electronic mail system consisting of a host computer 1, terminal groups 20-22 and a network 10 connecting the host computer 1 and the terminal groups 20-22. In the case of a message mail, it is not stored in the host computer 1 but it is immediately displayed on the terminal of a destination. The convenient electronic mail system provided with the usual function for leaving the message and the function for transmitting the message to the prescribed place can be realized.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a message board as one means for transmitting information to another person, and it is possible to leave a message to the other party.

Recently, a plurality of communication terminals are connected to a host computer via communication lines, and a document input from the communication terminal (hereinafter referred to as a terminal) is transmitted to another terminal via the host computer or to the host computer. A message handling system (hereinafter abbreviated as MHS) that can retrieve a stored document from a terminal is known.

In the MHS, various functions are realized by transmitting and receiving a control document (hereinafter abbreviated as CD) between a host computer and a terminal.

For example, in confidential distribution, the document sent from the terminal is stored in the host computer, and a confidential arrival notification is sent to the destination terminal as a CD. The destination terminal notifies the operator of the confidential arrival notification by displaying on a CD or the like, and the document of the host computer is pulled out by the operation of the operator.

Further, in the bulletin board service, when the operator designates a document stored in the host computer at the terminal, the host computer searches for a document matching the code and delivers it to the terminal.

[0007]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Anyone can freely use a message board installed in a station or the like. However, although the message could be left there, it could not be sent elsewhere.

Further, in any of the above-mentioned conventional services for electronic mail, in any case, the document stored in the host computer cannot be retrieved unless the other party operates the terminal to request the retrieval. Therefore, there is a problem of confidentiality in exchanging e-mails, so that the e-mails can be exchanged only by those who have subscribed to the e-mail system or who have mutual passwords.

[0009]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a host computer, a storage medium capable of accumulating a plurality of documents, and a terminal group having a device for displaying the documents, the host computer and the terminals. An e-mail system consisting of a network connecting the groups is used.

[0010]

According to the present invention, a message mail with a destination input from a certain terminal is immediately transmitted to the destination terminal via the host computer. The terminal that receives the mail displays the received mail on the device that displays the document dedicated to the message mail. As a result, it is possible to construct a message board system using the electronic mail system, which can not only leave a message but also send a message.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, 1 is a host computer, 2 is a disk device used for document storage, 10 is a network,
20 to 22 are terminals, 100 to 180 are components of the terminal 20, 130 is a network control unit (hereinafter abbreviated as NCU), 150 is a disk device used for document storage, 1
60 is an operation panel, 170 is a first document display device, 17
1 is a second document display device, 180 is a printer device, 12
0 is a microprocessor (hereinafter abbreviated as CPU) that controls the terminal components 130 to 180, 100 is a timepiece device,
110 is a table described later. In addition, the terminals 21 and 22
Since the constituent elements of are the same as those of the terminal 20, they are omitted in FIG.

In FIG. 1, the operation panel 16 of the terminal 20.
0 is composed of, for example, a keyboard for inputting a mail, a set key for confirming an input value, a start key for instructing transmission start, and the like. On the operation panel 160, the content of the mail to be transmitted, selection of a normal mail or a message mail, the destination of the mail, etc. are input, and after confirmation by the set key, the transmission is started by the start key. Here, the ordinary mail is the confidential distribution and bulletin board service described in the above-mentioned conventional example. After that, the CPU 120 adds the CD to the mail input from the operation panel 160,
It is transmitted via the network control device 130. This C
D includes information such as a normal mail or a message mail, a destination, and a sender. The mail with the CD added is sent to the host computer 1 via the network 10. The host computer 1 refers to the CD and performs the subsequent processing.

Referring to the above-mentioned CD, in the case of a normal mail, it is stored in the disk device 2 of the host computer 1 as it is, and as described above, in response to the withdrawal request from the terminal, the terminal with the withdrawal request from the disk device 2 is sent. Will be sent to. This process is the same as the conventional e-mail system without any difference. At this time, the e-mail for which the withdrawal request is received is displayed on the display device of the terminal with the withdrawal request. For example, terminal 2
When the withdrawal request is made with 0, it is displayed on the first document display device 170. The first document display device 170 performs, for example, input items, confirmation of transmission contents, display of the extracted mail, and the like. If you want to print the e-mail requesting withdrawal, make a print-out request on the operation panel 160.
Is output to the printer 180.

On the other hand, referring to the CD, if it is a message mail, the mail is sent to the destination terminal included in the CD without being stored in the disk device 2 of the host computer 1. The destination may be any terminal on the network, or may be the input terminal itself. That is, in FIG. 1, the message mail can be freely transmitted and received among the m terminals 20 to 22.
The sent mail is immediately displayed on the display device of the destination terminal, for example, the second document display device 171 if the destination terminal is the terminal 20. The second document display device 171 is a display device dedicated to a message mail, and has a display area capable of displaying n message mails at a time. Further, the message mail is accumulated in the disk device 150, and at the same time, a document table is created in the table 110. Here, an example of the table 110 is shown in FIG. When the message mail is sent as described above, the reception serial number, the sender included in the CD, and the time information are obtained from the clock device 100,
A document table having a structure as shown in FIG. 2 is created. The reception serial number is also a serial number for a document, and corresponds to each document on a one-to-one basis. The time information indicates the time when the destination terminal receives the message mail, for example.

The message mail is always displayed on the display device of the destination terminal, but if it is left as it is, the display area and the capacity of the disk device will be full. Therefore, the message mail is controlled so as to be automatically deleted after a certain time has passed since it was received. That is, the reception time indicated in the time information of the created table 110 is compared with the timepiece device 100, and the CPU 120 controls to automatically delete the mail displayed for a predetermined time, for example, 3 hours. Here, when the table 110 is created, the result obtained by calculating the expiration date from the reception time may be written in the table 110 as time information. At this time,
The expiration date is compared with the timepiece device 100, and the CPU 120 controls to automatically delete the expiration date after the expiration date. As a result, the area of the disk device for storing documents in each terminal can be effectively utilized.

On the other hand, concentrate on the terminal with the message mail,
If the disk device of the terminal is full, the process is performed as shown in the flowchart of FIG. When a message mail is sent, if there is no space in the disk device of the destination terminal, first the table is searched (process 1 in FIG. 3), and there is a mail that is deleted within a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes). Determine whether or not. If not, a message or the like for notifying that effect is displayed on the transmitting terminal (process 2 in FIG. 3). Also, if there is an e-mail that is deleted within a predetermined time, it is temporarily stored in the disk device 2 of the host computer 1 (process 3 in FIG. 3), and if the e-mail is deleted and a free space is available in the disk device of the terminal (Fig. Process 3) 4),
Immediately, the data is transferred from the host computer to the terminal (process 5 in FIG. 3).

The second display device 171 dedicated to the message mail described above always displays the message mail on the screen if the terminal 20 has the message mail. Therefore, it is readable by anyone and can play the same role as the current message boards. The reader does not need to operate the terminal at all, and only needs to know the location of the display device. Therefore, in addition to the function of leaving a message, which is the function of a conventional message board, it also has a function of sending a message to any place where a terminal is installed.

Here, in this embodiment, the table 110 described above is used.
In the above, each terminal is created in each terminal. However, the present invention may be applied to a method in which the above table is created in the host computer and is managed by the host computer. But,
If the number of terminals is large, the load on the host computer will increase and the efficiency of the host computer will decrease. The present embodiment can be said to be a system in which the efficiency of the entire network is improved by distributing the processing to each terminal.

As described above, a new message board system can be constructed by utilizing the network of the electronic mail system. According to the present invention, it is possible not only to leave a message but also to send and display a message at a place where a terminal is located, which can improve usability. If the present invention is replaced with a message board installed in a service area such as a station or a highway, its practical effect will be great.

In the present embodiment, the display device dedicated to the message mail is used, but there is no problem even if, for example, one display device allocates a part for the message mail and the rest to other display areas.

In this embodiment, the electronic mail system is also used as a conventional electronic mail system. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is obvious that an electronic mail system dedicated to message mail may be constructed. Is. Further, a dedicated line may be used, or even if a telephone line is used, the present invention causes no problem.

[0022]

According to the present invention, it is possible to construct a message board system having a function of sending a message by utilizing the advantages of the electronic mail system, in addition to the function of the conventional message board and the function of leaving a message.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a table in this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when the storage medium of the terminal is full.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Host computer, 2,150 ... Disk device, 10 ... Network, 20-22 ... Terminal, 100 ... Clock device, 110 ... Table, 120 ... Microprocessor, 160 ... Operation panel, 170, 171 ... Display device.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── --- Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshiro Owase, 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Ltd.Inside the Hitachi Media Visual Media Research Laboratory (72) Inventor, Tomiji Okamura 292, Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Stock company Hitachi Media Media Laboratory (72) Inventor Hideo Arai 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi Kanagawa Stock Company Hitachi Video Media Laboratory (72) Inventor Kazuhiko Yoshizawa 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Stock company Hitachi Media Media Laboratory (72) Inventor Miyoko Yoshikoshi 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi Kanagawa Stock Company Hitachi Video Media Laboratory (72) Inventor Naozumi Sugimura 292 Yoshida-cho Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Hitachi, Ltd. Visual Media Research Institute House

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A host computer having a storage medium capable of storing a plurality of documents, a plurality of terminal groups each having a storage medium capable of storing a plurality of documents, and a network connecting the host computer and the terminal group. In the electronic mail system consisting of, the first and second mail types from the input device of each terminal,
And a means for adding the destination to the control document and transmitting it, a means for determining the time for each terminal,
Means for displaying a document for each of the terminals, the host computer refers to the control document, and stores the mail of the first type in the storage medium of the host computer. In response to a withdrawal request from the host computer, the electronic mail system is characterized in that it is read from a storage medium of the host computer and transmitted, and if it is the second type of email, it is immediately transmitted to the destination terminal. 2. The destination terminal that receives the second type of mail immediately displays the second type of mail on the document display means of the destination terminal even if there is no withdrawal request from the destination terminal. 2. The display according to claim 1 is displayed.
E-mail system described. 3. When the destination terminal receives the second type of mail, it stores the received mail and the reception time in a storage medium of the destination terminal in association with each other. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic mail system is displayed on the destination terminal and erased from the storage medium. 4. When the storage medium of the destination terminal is full, the storage medium of the destination terminal, which stores the received mail and the reception time in association with each other, is referred to, and the mail is deleted within a predetermined time. If so, the second type of mail is temporarily stored in the storage medium of the host computer, and when the mail of the destination terminal is deleted, it is sent again. If there is no mail deleted within a predetermined time, 4. The electronic mail system according to claim 3, wherein a notification is sent to the transmitting terminal.